Category Archives: scary movies

September 12, 2018 · 7:00 am

Squirrel – Coming Soon!

I did this movie last year. We shot at Aldworth Manor in late September and October. It was a gorgeous location and such a great time with a great team. I’m very grateful to have had this experience and I’m REALLY excited for you all to see it!

Follow these accounts for more details:

HCT.Media Squirrel Movie Instagram

Of course there’s still my Twitter, Instagram and Fanpage which will also have details as they become available – so follow those today!

Shameless plug:

If you like t-shirts, hoodies and coffee mugs I suggest you check out our merch in our SHOP.

And of course I’ll be posting updates here as they happen.

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Filed under acting, actor stuff, blatant plug, career, film festivals, filmmaking, Hollywood, horror, independent film, making movies, movies, new projects, Operation: Television's Curtis Andersen 2.0, performing, projects, scary, scary movies, shameless self promotion, work

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October 30, 2015 · 10:51 am

Videos About Fall & Halloween

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The wife had a good idea for a video this year about California’s lack of significant seasonal change. She wrote a great blog about it HERE but if you just want to see the video you can see it below:

And last year I did a short for Fun Size Horror based on a short story I wrote called Bloody Mary. Since it’s the right time of year you can see that below:

Happy Halloween! Be safe and have fun!

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Filed under Andelon, blatant plug, comedy, creativity, directing, filmmaking, Fun Size Horror, fun video friday, Halloween, scary movies, videos, YouTube

September 8, 2015 · 8:00 am

Home – A Horror Short Starring My Wife

HOME title image

You may remember that last year Rene and I were involved in the Fun Size Horror project, a series of 31 horror shorts that were released the week of Halloween. Rene and I were directly involved in the production of two of them: Bloody Mary, which featured Rene and our niece Katie, and Home which starred Rene and our friend Matt Conde. After the release embargo was over I released Bloody Mary right away – but I thought that I had lost the final file for Home!

During a massive file transfer to my backup drives I found it, and posted it on YouTube for all to see! So please watch and enjoy Home:

 

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Filed under Andelon, blatant plug, Fun Size Horror, Halloween, Home, horror, making movies, movies, projects, scary movies, shameless self promotion, short film, video, videos, YouTube

Video

Bloody Mary – Fun Size Horror Revisited

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They are finally able to be released publicly! The shorts we made for Fun Size Horror are now available for public view.

“Bloody Mary” was a fun bit of filmmaking made under surprise conditions. Originally we had a different crew, location and equipment – but then there was some bad luck behind the scenes. Thanks to some help from Fun Size founder Zeke Pinheiro we were able to shoot and get this in on time.

Give it a look and then watch it a bunch more and tell a friend. More next week!

See you next time!

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January 7, 2015 · 9:00 am
November 22, 2013 · 7:26 pm

Fun Video Friday – Sallie The Heartland Ghost

I love a good ghost story.

If you have one I want to hear all about what you felt and what things moved and how the lights went on and off; yes tell me all about it – but I prefer if you have pictures and video. And I don’t mean just orbs or mist, I don’t care, show me the good stuff!

Back in 1993 the TV show Sightings had the good stuff. For about a year in 1993-1994 they covered a story called “The Heartland Ghost” where it seemed that a ghost of a young girl was haunting a house and terrorizing the man who lived there. So many things were caught on camera (as well as plenty of things off camera that are worth being skeptical about) that the story was revisited on more than 5 different occasions – including two web based episodes powered by AOL.

Yes, AOL.

I’m not saying this is definitive proof of anything, but today’s video is just about all of the Heartland Ghost episodes combined into one video:

Now, as I mentioned, this is by no means proof of anything. I do think that the stories presented in the Sightings episodes are, at least on the surface, presented in an honest way. But the Sallie story made minor celebrities out of Tony and Debra and they have continued to be associated with all things Sallie – including doing episodes of A Haunting and Paranormal Witness, both being programs that have been known to take liberties with the narratives they are sharing. To be fair, Tony and Debra have responded to how the editing was done on the Official Sallie House web site, in that they had no control over it, but it wasn’t until I saw the episode that I had ever heard that everything might be demonic or that there was a ghost of an old woman(?!?). Anyway, as a bonus here’s a quick peek at the Paranormal Witness version of the heat-sensing camera footage that you can see happen live in the Sightings footage. It’s pretty different and far more dramatic (surprise, surprise):

I couldn’t find a clip from A Haunting.

What do you think? I look forward to your thoughts!

See you next time!

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Filed under fun video friday, ghosts, scary movies, video, videos, YouTube

October 31, 2013 · 5:14 pm

Happy Halloween!

I love me some Halloween!

Fall is my favorite season of the year, with it’s crisp air and rain and cloudy days, and Halloween is a great “party” right before the formal end of the year holidays.

As I mentioned in my previous blog post, I also like getting scared and this is the perfect time of the year to do it! So I present to you three movies that I think make for fun Halloween watching.

All three are anthology films. I like anthology films for Halloween because you get a lot of horror bang for your buck and aren’t committed to only one story for the whole duration of the movie. Also, if you are in a party setting, you don’t feel bad if you miss ten minutes while you hit on the hot Snow White on the other side of the room.

Hubba hubba!

So here they are:

CREEPSHOW

With creators like Stephen King an George A. Romero it has quite a bit of horror cred. Made in the 80’s (and it shows) I find that this still holds up as a time capsule of how movies were made back then, especially when it comes to the practical effects. It’s not scary like Exorcist scary but it is fun. Here’s the trailer:

CREEPSHOW 2

While the first Creepshow is campy, Creepshow 2 is actually more on the scary side. King and Romero join forces again and raise the ante. With segments like “The Raft” and “The Hitch-hiker” there is a lot of suspense added to the gore. Here’s the trailer:

Trick ‘r Treat

There is a lot of history behind this movie getting released. You can read about it HERE, but what I like about this movie is that it celebrates Halloween and tells you scary stories at the same time. Plus, Sam is a pretty cool mascot for the holiday.

I truly love this movie and think it makes for a great Halloween tradition. Here’s the trailer:

Do you have a favorite Halloween movie? Tell me about it in the comments. Also, if you’d like to watch these and other great scary movies why not try Amazon Prime? Click the banner below for details and a free trial!

 See you next time! Happy Halloween!

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Filed under Halloween, holidays, scary movies, videos

October 21, 2013 · 11:41 pm

How The Exorcist Changed My Life

I love scary stuff. Movies, haunted houses, books and stories, all of these – especially if it’s a particular month in the fall – are right up my alley!

In fact the thing that got me into the idea of film making is the one movie that, to this day, still scares me to the core: The Exorcist. 

From Wikipedia: The Exorcist is a 1973 American horror film directed by William Friedkin, adapted by William Peter Blatty from his 1971 novel of the same name. The book, inspired by the 1949 exorcism case of Roland Doe,[3][4] deals with the demonic possession of a 12-year-old girl and her mother’s desperate attempts to win back her child through an exorcism conducted by two priests.

The film features Ellen Burstyn, Max von Sydow, Jason Miller, Lee J. Cobb, Linda Blair, and (in voice only) Mercedes McCambridge. It is one of a cycle of “demonic child” films produced from the late 1960s to the mid-1970s, including Rosemary’s Baby and The Omen.
The Exorcist was released theatrically in the United States by Warner Bros. on December 26, 1973. The film earned 10 Academy Award nominations, winning two (Best Sound Mixing andBest Adapted Screenplay), and losing Best Picture to The Sting. It became one of the highest-grossing films of all time, grossing over $441 million worldwide. It is also the first horror film to be nominated for Best Picture.
The film has had a significant influence on popular culture.[5][6] It was named the scariest film of all time by Entertainment Weekly[7] and Movies.com[8] and by viewers of AMC in 2006, and was No. 3 on Bravo’s The 100 Scariest Movie Moments.[9][dead link] In 2010, the Library of Congress selected the film to be preserved as part of its National Film Registry.[10][11] In 2003, it was placed at No. 2 in Channel 4‘s The 100 Greatest Scary Moments in the United Kingdom.
Here’s the trailer:
The song Tubular Bells sets me on edge. 
The movie plays on the deepest “fight or flight” instincts in my brain. The idea that some entity could invade my body and do horrible things triggered in my brain at an early age and possession became the one thing that truly scared me through my childhood, as did the things associated with that idea. 
I ate up stories about Ouija boards and anything paranormal that people could tell me. In fact, when I was a pre-teen, I was convinced that I’d grow up to become a professional parapsychologist, busting ghosts and finding proof of things from beyond! 
Obviously that didn’t happen, but all that spookiness still had an impact. My fear of The Exorcist caused me to be a bit obsessive about it. I felt that if I understood every nook and cranny of the movie, and all of the aspects of its creation, it might help me not be as scared of it. I read up on it, watched every documentary that existed (I especially enjoyed the one that came in the 25th anniversary box set: “The Fear of God”), and just generally cataloged every scrap of information that existed. 
I have a great deal of respect for the making of the movie. The sets were chilled to get authentic breath fog during the exorcism, the sound of bees in a jar were laid low into the sound mix during scenes to build tension, practical effects and use of light and shadow helped to build an atmosphere that sets the viewer on edge. Director William Friedkin even shot off guns during scenes to scare the actors. Horribly abusive, maybe, but it was a dedication to storytelling that produced amazing results. Because of the care put into the film it still holds up today.

In fact even writing this entry has me all anxious and set on edge. It has been years since I’ve watched this movie and just the pictures and little bits that I’ve seen to add to the post has me nervous and jumping at every noise. I haven’t even been able to get up the gumption to watch the trailer embedded in this post.

It is this effect that I aspire to as a storyteller. Maybe not scaring the pants off of people, per se, but making a permanent impression and doing work that is as powerful decades later as it is when it’s released. The Exorcist was a triumph that spawned less effective sequels but has made an indelible mark on popular culture. It is spoofed, imitated and has crossed over into different mediums. My friends over at All Puppet Players are doing a puppet version in Arizona. Follow the link to learn more! It has become more than just a movie.

I’ve actually scared myself. So I’m going to go, but I hope you all have a happy Halloween! I know I will, but I probably won’t be watching The Exorcist.

See you next time!

Wanna watch The Exorcist or Exorcist related content? Why not try Amazon Prime? Television and movies and free 2-day shipping!

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Filed under filmmaking, Halloween, scary movies, The Exorcist